By David Kates

Originally published: January 10, 2013

Italian 70s microcar

The 1970s were really a strange decade for cars. Here in North America, you had automakers struggling on one hand to introduce smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in the wake of spiking oil prices. On the other, you saw them rolling out big cars with increasingly garish design features – like, say, the Cadillac Seville Grandeur Opera Coupe, with its vinyl top and spare wheels on either side of the hood.

What did they do in Italy? Well, dune buggy manufacturers Autozodiaco provide one example. It’s a microcar called Charly (shown above). But really, it was just a motorized tricycle with a closed passenger compartment. You can check out Autoweek for a gallery and accompanying article.

You might have a soft spot for the Mini Cooper or Fiat 500. But does anyone actually miss the PT Cruiser? (Wikipedia photo),

Given the continued popularity of the Mini Cooper, Fiat 500 and Volkswagen Beetle, as well as neo-muscle cars like the Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, it’s not like the trend is completely over. But, as the article suggests, there now seems to be a better balance struck between celebrating the past and pushing forward with new designs.

Space-age concept cars

Speaking of retro cars, check out this slice of retro-futuristic deliciousness. It’s old footage of some 1950s rocket-inspired concepts, the Ford Atmos and Mystere, and the Studebaker Astro – which was supposed to contain a nuclear reactor as its source of propulsion:

It’s a stunning throwback and a reminder that it wasn’t too long ago that people believed, by the end of the 20th century, we would have been driving rocket-propelled cars, flying cars, “atom-powered” cars – or maybe some combination of the three.

That we never got there remains one of the world’s great mysteries. Why, oh why, didn’t anyone ever mass-produce a passenger vehicle propelled by an on-board nuclear reactor?

Ridiculous car myths

As we learned from Seinfeld, there’s no such thing as a “Johnson rod” and it certainly doesn’t need any repairs – despite your crooked mechanic’s repeated assertions. It’s in that spirit that Jalopnik is asking its readers the time-honoured question: What’s the most ridiculous car myth you’ve ever heard? The resulting discussion is worth a read.

One popular response from readers is the one that says Japanese cars are objectively more durable and reliable than their American-made counterparts. Perhaps at one time they were – this 1979 Civic looks like it probably survived at least a couple of decades of punishment – but the differences in quality aren’t anywhere near what they used to be.